Three Things
by UnderdogHero
Summary: Haizaki unwillingly attends a Christmas party at Hiroto's house, but in retrospect maybe he should have just stayed in bed. Christmas fic for Spring Zephyr.


A/N: A Merry Christmas to Zephyr, who apparently thought I'd given up on this idea. I just expanded on the original. Yes, that's totally why it took so long to get started-

The original prompt was "Hiroto finds Haizaki's bear at camp and teases him about it" but we detract from that pretty quickly.

**.**

Christmas, Haizaki decided, was not necessarily the happiest time of the year.

For starters, he could think of at leas three other places he'd find enjoyable. Home, the soccer field at school, even that amusement park he and Akane had started frequenting because honestly, who could say no the the bears? Yes, the bears, there was nothing else convincing him, he insists.

So yeah, he'd rather be at a few of those places right now. But instead, school was closed for break, the park was too crowded, and Akane was visiting her grandparents in the countryside so he wouldn't have been able to go anyway.

He should have never picked up Hiroto's call that morning, or given in to Tatsuya's - barely audible - plead to "come over and keep him company, he's _definitely_ lonely".

(Followed by an indignant yell from Hiroto that he was definitely _not_.)

A car had picked him up two blocks away - because like hell he was getting into a fancy black car in front of his tiny, cheap apartment building, no thanks - and he'd arrived at the large mansion in about ten minutes.

Now, he was sandwiched between Asuto and Nosaka, who were currently on "Don't Let Haizaki Run Away Again" duty and chatting happily. Apparently, the group had already organized shifts, courtesy of Kido and Mizukamiya, who were pointedly ignoring Haizaki's glares from the other side of the room.

And Hiroto, the cause of his suffering, was nowhere to be seen.

Shifting slightly - and maybe elbowing his friends because "you don't have to _literally_ hold me down!" - he dragged his backpack onto his lap, rummaging through it. He felt Nosaka stand up and exchange words with someone - he assumed Hiura, from the voice - before walking away. Asuto did the same a few seconds later, but was replaced by someone sitting on the floor in front of what used to be his seat.

Where was it… there.

He pulled out a small, royal blue lump with a lighter blue ribbon tied around it. Both the wrapping and ribbon were done sloppily, Akane had never been that good at household things like this, but he would insist it showed character.

(He briefly flashed back to Ichihoshi attempting to hold back laughter as Haizaki bit into a slightly-more-than-well-done cookie, sent by Akane during their training. He'd deny the boy's accusations that he tried to choke him with one after.)

He carefully scratched off the tape, undoing the folds of wrapping slowly. If Akane couldn't be here while he opened then he'd just have to take his time and give her an in-depth account of his reaction later.

Pulling away the paper, he smiled slightly when he saw the item inside. Wrapped in another small layer of tissue paper was a bear, similar to the ones they collected, only this one was grey with a grumpy expression on its face. A little soccer ball bean bag was inside with it, and while they obviously didn't go together, he got was she was trying to say.

"Aww, your girlfriend gave you a teddy, how cute!"

Haizaki's smile warped into a scowl as an arm was thrown over his shoulder and Hiroto's entire body slid into the seat next to him, bumping his shoulder and nearly knocking him over, an infuriating grin on his face.

The bear was plucked from his hands within seconds, Hiroto danging it above his head and looking it over.

"Isn't this from that weird brand you like?" He asked, bringing it back down and tossing it from hand to hand. Haizaki attempted to snatch it back, only for it to be held out of his reach.

"Give it back." He said, grabbing Hiroto's shoulder and pulling him closer. Hiroto responded by shoving his elbow into his chest, grin starting to reach Cheshire Cat levels. There was a sigh from in front of them.

"Stop bullying him, Hiroto." Tatsuya, who was seated on the floor and opening a colorful box, said. He glared half-heartedly at Hiroto, as if he didn't want to put any effort into the unsaid threat. Hiroto turned his attention to the red-head.

"You're the one that invited him, why again? "Hiroto's definitely lonely and needs attention"? Technically this is your fault."

He pointed at Tatsuya, with the hand that was holding the bear, and the boy gave Haizaki an apologetic look before going back to his box. Hiroto grinned again at the apparent win, swinging the bear around again.

Then Tatsuya turned to him again, with a smile so bright it felt like looking into the sun. Haizaki briefly wondered if that smile could melt the snow outside.

"Look, Hiroto! Your grandma made us matching sweaters!"

Hiroto's grin immediately dropped upon seeing the bright green-white-blue knitted sweater, his name in big, bold letters across the chest. On Tatsuya's lap was another, only with red and yellow in place of the white and blue. The letters for his name were visible.

In the momentary distraction, Haizaki snatched his bear back, shoving it into his bag.

"Look at that, isn't your grandma sweet." He said, zipping up his bag and shoving it behind him. "Don't you think he should wear it, Tatsuya?"

Hiroto gave him an annoyed yet horrified look, and one of betrayal to Tatsuya when he cheerfully said "Absolutely! It'll look great!"

"No. Both of you screw off. I'm not wearing that- _Tatsuya sit your ass back down I'm not wearing it-_"

Haizaki leapt out of his seat as he was greeted to the sight of Tatsuya all but tackling Hiroto, shoving him onto the couch and attempting to get his head into the rather ugly sweater. His bright, sunny smile was practically manic now.

"What's going on?" Nosaka asked, half a bar of chocolate in hand. Haizaki glanced at it, then over Nosaka's shoulder to Hiura, who was looking rather miffed. He didn't want to know, so he jerked his head towards where Hiroto was currently in a headlock.

"Karma."

**.**

"... and then Midorikawa and Yagami got caught up in it, so we spent the rest of the party taking sides."

"_Which side were you on?_"

"The 'Let's hunt down Hiroto and get him into this ugly sweater' side. Obviously."

His statement was met with a fit of laughter and a thump on the other side of the phone. He leaned back comfortably, remembering how they found Hiroto hiding in pantry two hours into the search and how he proceeded to throw bags of chips at them. They'd gotten into a bit of trouble with the kitchen staff, but not much. It was clear they were happy Hiroto finally had decent friends.

"How's the farm?" He asked once Akane's laughter died down. There was a shuffling sound, and he imagined she was climbing back onto her bed.

"_It's fun! Grandpa let me help him with the chickens, they were really sweet. When you're not taking their eggs, at least._"

"They didn't bite you, did they?" He asked, clearing his throat when the worry showed too easily. Akane giggled.

"_Chickens don't bite, Ryohei, they peck. And no, grandpa was distracting them while I collected the eggs._"

"Oh…"

There was more laughter on Akane's side, and he felt his cheeks flush from embarrassment.

"W-well, as long as you had fun." He said, and he could practically see the smile on Akane's face.

"_You should come with us next year, you'd love it there._"

"I doubt it…"

"_No, really! There's lots of open space too, so we can play soccer after all the chores are done!_"

"I have to help with the chores too?!"

More laughter, but this time Haizaki let himself join in.

"_But really, you should come. It'll feel more like Christmas if you're there._"

… Well, he couldn't say no to that.

"I'll… talk to my parents about it, when the time comes."

Akane let out a small "Yay!" at that, and he couldn't help the chuckle that followed.

"_I'll even __make us a nice Christmas cake! We can use the milk and eggs from the farm!"_

He was smiling, but his face twisted slightly.

"As long as there's no tofu in it."

"_Oh my gosh, that was so long ago_!"

He expected her to go on about the farm some more, in an attempt to change the subject, but she launched a different - more amusing - question at him.

"_So, did you guys ever get that sweater on Hiroto?_"

Haizaki smirked.

"Listen to this…"

He could find out all about the farm when he went there himself.

**.**

A/N: For once I finished this on time, actually two weeks ahead of time, so I'm a little proud. And then I got the genius idea to upload it before work. Cue me regretting it as I spent twenty minutes trying to think of a title and praying I can catch the bus.

It's Christmas, guys.

(Edit: I was late for work.)


End file.
